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The Scandal is not Sex!

There may indeed be a scandal about the handling and mishandling of the Benghazi tragedy. At this moment it does not appear to be an Obama/White House problem–as so many pre-election conservative pundits wished, hoped and predicted. The question of when did Obama know the truth may be a truly important and bi-partisan scandal. He may have been betrayed.

If Paula Broadwell, David Petraeus’ paramour, was speaking truthfully in Colorado last month and the Benghazi annex/safe house was indeed a CIA property, holding Libyan prisoners, then the CIA was running an illegal and rogue operation in direct contravention of a presidential directive.

If this is true, then the cover up was perpetrated at the behest of the CIA. And they allowed the State Department to take the hit. Normally, it is the State Department that is charged with protecting our embassies and consulates. They are also charged with protecting CIA operatives and giving cover to our spies, sources and contractors. But no number of Marine guards could have protected a remote consulate or annex from a well-armed attack from a mob armed with RPGs, automatic weapons and jeep-mounted artillery.

It was foreseeable that something bad would happen on the 9-11 anniversary. Libya, we knew, was unstable and Benghazi was the most chaotic of cities and the number one source of foreign Sunni Jihadis and weapons in Syria.

Thus, following the Benghazi debacle Hillary Clinton took responsibility. And this seemed at first blush appropriate. To have done otherwise would have been only tangentially detrimental to the president. More importantly it would have outed CIA agents and contractors. And if they were, as Ms. Broadwell said, holding Libyan prisoners, this would have created a public relations nightmare with the Libyans and really with all of the various host nations to whom we vigorously deny using our embassies as bases for our spies.